Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
116
Cinerarium
The surfaces are covered with an earthy incrustation, creating a mottled effect. The ground or molding below the horse's feet is broken away, as if hollowed out underneath. Most of the animal's left leg and the rider's left foot are also lost.
The front panel only is carved with a triple fillet molding above, Doric triglyphs left and right, with base moldings below. In the inset relief of the front panel, between the triglyphs a young person enveloped in a cloak rides to the left on a large horse.
The architectural arrangement and sculptural format of this urn can be visualized by the older, Hellenistic Etruscan monuments from Volterra, carved in volcanic or alabaster-like stone. Between the pilasters of one example, Scylla is seen in the conventional, frontal view of Greek metalwork, of the fourth century B.C. The rider represents the deceased on his equestrian journey to the underworld, between two winged demons. The motif survived into monumental Roman Imperial funerary reliefs and sarcophagi (Giglioli, 1935, pls. CCCC, no. 3, and CCCXCVI, no. I, both in the Museo Guarnacci; Haynes, 1939, pp. 27-32, pls. I, II).
Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer
